Nanjing’s South New City National Fitness Centre hosts the tournament for a second consecutive year, while the bulk of the qualifying matches took place in Sheffield. The final will be held on Sunday, 9th November, following six days of knockout round action, as the 64 participants are whittled down to just two remaining players. With snooker fans all over the world eager to see whether defending champion Ding Junhui can retain his crown, a series of international broadcasters – including UK-based network TNT Sports – will be present in Nanjing.
The International Championship follows last month’s Northern Ireland Open, which was won by former world number ten Jack Lisowski. The 34-year-old overcame his best friend Judd Trump in a nerve-shredding final, recording a 9-8 victory at the Waterfront Hall.
Format
As previously alluded to, the competition follows a straightforward knockout round format. Each tie adopts the ‘best of’ approach, while having a pre-set maximum number of frames. The initial four rounds are played as best of 11 frames, before this number increases to 17 for the semi-finals, which are played across two separate sessions. The final is also divided into two sessions, but unfolds as a best-of-19 frames contest.
Prize Money
Having gradually risen since the tournament’s inaugural edition thirteen years ago, the prize pot for the 2025 International Championship stands at a colossal £825,000. The winner will claim over 20% of that bounty, receiving a £175,000 cheque for their week’s efforts.
Players competed for a share of exactly the same sum in 2023 and 2024, following the event’s four-year absence amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Although the total prize fund was lower in both 2018 and 2019, the champion was still handed a £175k reward. The last time a winner earned less than that figure was back in 2017, when former world number one Mark Selby received £150,000 at the Baihu Media Broadcasting Centre in Daqing.
As has always been the case in all previous editions of the competitions, this year’s prize money is distributed on a sliding scale. Players are issued a fee relative to their performance, with those who advance to the later rounds enjoying a greater slice of the kitty. A full list of allocations is provided below:
Round One (Last 64): £5,000
Round Two (Last 32): £9,000
Round of 16: £14,000
Quarter-finals: £22,000
Semi-finals: £33,000
Runner-up: £75,000
Champion: £175,000
There is also a £5,000 bonus awarded to the player who delivers the tournament’s highest break, whether that be achieved in the initial qualifying matches or throughout the main draw. Xu Si was the recipient of this supplementary fee last year, after recording a maximum break in his second-round victory over Ryan Day. The Chinese youngster later progressed to the semi-final stage, before being defeated by eventual winner Ding Junhui.